Steel-felly wheel



. W. E. WILLIAMS.

SVTEEL FELLY WHEEL. APPLICATIION FILED IAN. 8,1920.

Patenteweb; 8,1921.

INVENTOR WILLIAM. EB'ASTUS WILLIAMS, or CHICAGO, rumors.

STEEL-FELLY Specification of Letters Patent. I Patent d F b. 8 1921 Application filed w s. 8,1920. Serial No. 350,109.

Tia-all whom it maycMwern:

Beit. known that I, WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS, a citizen of the United States, a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois, have invented'a new and useful Improvement in Steel-Felly Wheels, of whichthe following is a-specification. 1

The object of this invention is to provide a wheel having a steel felly and peculiar steel spokes and yet lighter than a woodwheel,

' quite as strong, and less expensive.

I which is partly finished intheop'eration of.

The invention is set forth in the claims.

Reference will be had to the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is a front elevationof the, wheel. e

F ig.. 2 is a radial transverse section on a larger scale than Fig. 1, showing one-half of the wheel.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a section on line H of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a plan of .one of the stampings making the spokes.

Fig. 6 is a side, or edge view-of the stampingg shown in Fig. 5.

ig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6, showing a modifiedform for the spoke. when the cross section curvature is omitted and the metal v bending and allowed to stay in a fiat sheet as relates to a cross section of the spokes.

Fig. 8 is a view corresponding to that of Fig. 4, with the flat spokes used as'is indicated by Fig. 7.

In the drawing, 1 indicates. the ordinary hub of a pleasure car as the rear hub. This hub is made of a casting havingthe front curved surface 2, andribs 3, which support an annular flange section 4 and a vertical annular flange section 5.

In the outer flange or circumferance 4, I provide a series of rectangular cavities 6 1n which the ends 7 of the spokes are keyed by a series of keys ,8.

The main spoke body sections 9 and 10 are made of a flat strip-of metal 11 indicatedby Fig.5.

The fiat strip 11 is pierced at 1 2and cut asunder at the'ends as indicated at 13 and 14,

and this flatstrip is bent while it is still in the Hat as is shown byFig. 6 and in this piercing operation the spoke is pressed into curved shape as is indicated by 15 in Fig. 4..

The two sides of the strip shown in Fig. 5

are folded'over upon themselves,-and the at the hub, by bolts 21.

rivet the two section felly.

wheel, herein shown underneath the spokes and .hub parallel with its axis,

' of the -hub and when the of the keys.

' central'portion 16, which isstill intact, is

folded into an oval as indicated by the section 17 in F ig.. 3, which is in the middle regionof the spoke body. At this region a series of cli s 18 are secured, through the medium oft e nuts 19, to the body 20 of the brake drum, and the latter is fastened also In vthe'case of the'front wheel, where. no

- brake drum is needed the clips 18 are omitted and the cold shut union 22, as indicated in Fig. 3, is welded or otherwise suitably secured together.

In place of thiswelding of this cold shut seam 22 I, may clamp on a ring" or I may sides of the spoke body at this pointto each other and get the correspondin bracing results desired. I The spoke ends 10 turn over at 23, (see Fig. fil-andthey are secured in small depressions. 24: inthe web 25 of the channel The ends 23 are secured to the fell'y by the rivets 26 or are spot welded as desired.

The depressions 24 and side walls 27 take side thrusts ofthe ends 23 of the spokes, so that not all of the. side or skidding-strains arenecessarily'borne by the rivets 26.

The felly of the wheel in this case is made ofa channel section having the web 25 and the rear abutment flange 28 and the forward inclined flange 29, which are shown here as being used with a demountable' rim shown in dotted lines as 30. This rim has an inclined'face 31 that bears on the flange 28 of the felly'and has an inclined face 32 which bearson the flange 29 of the front flange secure thefspokesto the felly as the first step, then I "assemble the hub in position then I press the up into its proper relationship, with the spokes entering in this movement. The ends 7 of all the spokes simultaneously entering hub is home I then force in the keys '8, securely fastening the spokes into the hub by the wedging. action The keys 8 are'made 'slightlytapere'd as are the cavities 6, so that when the keys are into the cavities 6 "pressed home the several ends 7 are very firmly secured in the hub.

' After the keys are home I rivet inner ends, w ich .prevents their coming out.

By this arrangement of the spokes they:

are very securely braced into the wheel and adapted to take up the torsional strains of:

t the axle together with the direct side thrust strains involved n,the service of the wheel.

What I claim is 1. In a wheel of theclass described, a metal hub, a metal rim, said'rim forming the fixed rim portion and indented outwardly for the spoke section, with a series of spokes made of fiat metal and keyed in the hub and with their outer ends turned over and seated in the outward depressions of w the rim.

2. In a wheel of the class described, a metal hub and a metal rim in the form of a channel section having the flanges of the channel projecting outwardly, forming the tread portions of the rim, the spoke seats indented outwardly in the web section-of the said channel rim and with fiat metal spokes suitably fixed to the hub and having their outer ends turned over and seated. in depressions in the web of the channel section of the rim and secured therein.

3. In a wheel of the class described, a metal hub, a metal rim, havin I a series-of spokes secured to the hub an to the rim over their and the said spokes having their ends turned both hub and rim and each having its middle portion deflected to the oppositely deflected middle portion of its companion and secured thereto.

6. The combination with a metalhub and rim, of broad flat-metal spokes all in a plane, arranged in pairs widely separated at both ,hub and rim and having their in termediate portions brought together, and clips rigidly connecting the portions thus brought together.

Signed at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, this nineteenth day of December, 1919. 7

WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS.

Witnesses:

J. B. Jnrrnnson, B. J. BERNHARD. 

